Pauly Shore is Dead

REVIEW
Both a goofy showbiz comedy and a strange meditation on fame, Pauly Shore is Dead isn’t literally about Pauly Shore, but uses his career as a template to show how a performer with the type of compartmental fame he’s had deals with — or, rather, fails to deal with — the inevitable fading of that fame. The story concerns the varied reactions of friends, fans and detractors to the fake news that the former MTV, Encino Man and Bio-Dome slacker/star has unceremoniously croaked. Drawing on friends and friends of friends, and sprinkled with many amusing celebrity cameos (including what is perhaps the finest Todd Bridges performance ever captured on film), the movie is a harmless musing on the difference between one’s essence and their perceived identity and is worth a look if only for the chance to watch a former pop cultural icon take some much-deserved punishment at his own expense. Just give him some attention — that’s all he wants. Ace impressionist Craig Gass is the uncredited voice of the ghost of Sam Kinison and the hallucination of Adam Sandler.